Customer Evangelism in Public K-12 Schools

1. Customer Evangelism in Public K-12 Schools Kim Schroeder

2. What is a Customer Evangelist? • Evangelists passionately recommend your company to others. • Evangelists provide true sustainable growth because they love doing business with your company. • Evangelists believe in your mission.

3. My Challenge • “Throw out everything you know about marketing, we’re going to do it my way.” • The CEO’s way was reliant on viral marketing. • Viral marketing works in the K-12 marketplace. • K12 educators rely on nearby technology innovators for recommendations.

4. About Infinite Campus • Develops, distributes and implements software used to manage K-12 public school student data. • Founded in Blaine, Minnesota, where our first customer is located. • Serves 1,200 district customers in 44 states.

5. Fred Reicheld • To test evangelism, ask the Ultimate Question. • Companies need to ask just one question to understand if it has an evangelist network. • Harvard Business School Professor • More powerful than typical satisfaction and loyalty surveys.

6. Customer Satisfaction • Crucial to customer retention. • Measurement is difficult. • Results lack precision – what does “satisfaction” mean to each individual? • 60 to 80% of company defectors respond to surveys that they are satisfied or very satisfied right before defecting.

7. Customer Loyalty • Loyal customers have an emotional bond with the company. • Loyal customers are tolerant when things go slightly wrong. • Loyal customers do buy more over time. • Loyal customers may never recommend the company to others.

8. The Ultimate Question • “Would you recommend company ‘X’ to a friend or colleague?” • Answer: Yes (Promoters) No (Detractors) • Promoters minus Detractors equals Net Promoter Score (NPS).

9. NPS Industry Examples • Average U.S. companies score an NPS of 5-10. • Loyalty leaders like Southwest Airlines and American Express score an NPS of 50. • Harley-Davidson scores an NPS of 80.

10. Research Question “Is there a positive perception of Infinite Campus leading to customer evangelism?”

11. Methodology • Online survey • Distributed Nov. 12-30, 2007 • 3,279 Campus Contacts • Example: 3 Campus Contacts at St. Paul Public Schools for 40,000 students and 6,300 staff • Response rate of 690 = 21%

12. Have you recommended Infinite Campus to others? • Yes = 45.8% • No = 35.9% • Promoters minus Detractors equals NPS • 45.8 - 35.9 = 9.9 NPS

13. If yes, how often have you recommended Infinite Campus to others? • 58.2% recommended Infinite Campus more than once. • 26.2% of respondents recommended two to three times – largest single citation.

14. If yes, why have you recommended Infinite Campus to others? • Benefits of highest value include: • District-wide integration • State reporting functionality • Web-based client access

15. If no, why haven’t you recommended Infinite Campus to others? • The most frequently cited reasons include: • Other schools nearby already use it. • Product quality issues. • Not on the product long enough to recommend.

16. NPS Excluding First Year Customers • Yes = 66% • No = 34% • Promoters minus Detractors equals NPS • 66 - 34 = 32 NPS

17. Research Question • “Is there a positive perception of Infinite Campus leading to customer evangelism?” Yes

18. Results • NPS of 9.9 was disappointing. • NPS of 32 excluding the first year customers was good, but not great. • Organization needs to improve overall to become a loyalty leader like Southwest Airlines and American Express.

19. Recommendations to Encourage Customer Evangelism • Improve product quality. • Develop a communication program to improve the first year transition. • Grow client executive program to build strong relationships with each customer. • Establish customer advisory groups to gain input and recognize evangelists.

20. Our Evangelists • They have been on the software longer than one year. • They have recommended the product 2-3 times. • They are the most important customers. • Questions?